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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Dollar Dolly Duffel Bag! -- TUTORIAL

Today's Dollar Store Craft is a mini duffel bag for your dolly (or for yourself!). Your 18"doll can haul her dance clothes to the studio in style. Or, when she heads over to her friend's house for a sleepover, her pretty overnight bag will be the envy of all the other dolls!

All you need is one tote bag and a zipper. I had my zipper on hand, but you could purchase one at a crafts/sewing supply store. Or, if you are not opposed to a little seam ripping, check this out:

(photo courtesy of my "high-quality" cell phone camera!)A dollar store backpack! That green zipper is exactly the right color -- and you can steal the black webbing straps as well. All for a buck!

(Note: For my duffel bag I used the body of one tote bag and the handles from anothe rbecause I wanted contrasting handles.)

I ended up with a 24" x 13" rectangle, plus two strips of approximately 26" of straps.

STEP TWO: Cut out the pieces of your bag:Cut a 7 1/2" x 10 1/2" rectangle for the main body. (On mine I was careful to center the motif.)Cut two circles with 3 3/8" diameter. (Again, I centered the motif!)Cut two strap pieces at 18" and one at 8".

STEP THREE: Fold your rectangle in half to find the center. Lay your handles as shown, with the raw ends of the handles about 1/4" from the center. I centered my straps carefully on the motif. Repeat for the other handle.

STEP FOUR: Sew your straps down. Don't sew them all the way up to the top edge! I stopped 2 1/2" from the top edge of the rectangle on either side.

STEP NINE: Fold down the two short edges of your rectangles a scant 1/4". Crease with your finger.

STEP TEN: Attach your zipper to either side of your bag. My zipper was about 18" long, giving me plenty of extra space to get the job done without having to wrestle the bag and zipper.

STEP ELEVEN: Attach one circle to the first end of your duffel bag (not the one with the long zipper tail). If the motif on your circle is directional, be sure to get it right side up. The circle is actually quite easy to attach -- simply pull and rotate the circle around in front of the presser foot, matching the edges as you go.

Looking good so far!

STEP TWELVE: Sew the other circle on, starting a short distance away from the zipper and ending a short distance before you reach the other side of the zipper, as shown.

STEP THIRTEEN: Next, zip your zipper about 1/4" of the way across the body of your bag. You need to have plenty of room to turn your bag right side out through the zipper opening.

STEP FOURTEEN: Finish attaching your circle. I gave the zipper a little added stability by sewing a bar tack over the zipper teeth in the seam allowance.

STEP FIFTEEN: Cut off the excess zipper (don't use your good sewing scissors! I used my kitchen shears) and turn your back right side out. Done! Your doll is ready to pack up her duffel bag and head to her best friend's house for a sleepover!

Want ideas of what she can stuff in there?

Wendy at Old Days Old Ways (hi, Mom!) just made a super fun sleeping bag for her 18" doll -- she gives measurements here. And guess what -- after checking the dimensions of the rolled up sleeping bag we discovered it will fit EXACTLY in the duffel bag! Serendipity!!!

14 comments:

I love these dollar store makeover projects. My only problem is that I'm zipper-phobic when it comes to sewing. One day I'll overcome that. I think the cookie backpack is adorable and just wish I could magically shrink THAT to doll size.

THIS is adorable. i totally bought dollar store backpacks the other day! i thought you'd be so proud. :) they had a front zipper as well as the big one and nice straps. the fabric for the actual backpack is practically tissue. haha. but i'm so excited about my zippers and straps. i saw some cute totebags and now i'll have to go back and get them to do this project. yay!

Oh my gosh, this is just SUPER CUTE! I love it and my Granddaughter just got an American Girl doll. I only hope I can attempt this without the fear I also have of zippers. I KNOW they are (supposedly) easy to do, especially with my Viking D1 machine that practically does it by itself, but the key is to get me to TRY it. LOL Thank you SO much.

My daughter just became obsessed with AG dolls (which has come as a shock - she has never been into dolls) so I am just now searching for things we can make for her (I don't want to pay the original AG prices for everything - sheesh!). Thanks so much for this tutorial. I am off to check out all your other links.